The migrants were on two boats off the coast near Garabulli, east of Libya’s capital, one of which had already sunk when the coastguard arrived at the scene.

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‘When we arrived in the area, off the town of Garabulli, one dinghy was semi-submerged and still had people clinging on to it, whom we saved,’ Libyan patrol boat commander Nasser al-Ghammoudi told Italian newspaper Il Giorno.

‘There were lots of bodies all around and we saw there were four or five sharks swimming among them, large blue sharks, a very aggressive species.

‘When we brought the bodies on board we noticed that some of them had been bitten, so it’s possible that among the missing some may have been eaten.’

Abu Ajala Amer Abdelbari, a coast guard commander, said people ‘were spread out in the sea, trying to swim towards the coast’.

‘There were about 60 people who we were able to save because they were clinging to the remains of the boat.’

Libya is the main departure point for mostly African migrants trying to cross to Europe. Smugglers usually pack them into flimsy inflatable boats that often break down or sink.

Most migrants are picked up by international vessels and taken to Italy, where more than 115,000 have landed so far this year, although an increasing number are intercepted by Libya’s European-backed coastguard and returned to the North African country.

Libyan coastguards carry the body of an African migrant at a naval base in the capital Tripoli (picture: AFP/Getty Images)

Since July, there has been a sharp drop in crossings, though this week has seen a renewed surge in departures.

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Nearly 3,000 migrants are known to have died or be missing after trying to cross to Europe by sea this year, the majority of them between Libya and Italy.

The International Organisation for Migration said on Friday that since 2000 the Mediterranean had been ‘by far the world’s deadliest border’ for migrants.